I figured all EQ , room correction and sub xover and volume should be digital in a modern preamp with built in DAC , you just add an ADC for the analog sources you still have left ? It should simply have an DSP ?Considering that a nice (obviously analog) high pass filter with variable frequency,slopes,level,etc as it should be to integrate nicely will be no less than 50-100 euro for components (even more for top quality),nice non-scratchy pots (and that's without top of the notch opamps,count about 8 of them at least for all the above) I don't see that happening for the low cost device we see here.
What's the point of been on a device with limited (always will be) available PEQ ,double convertion,etc?I figured all EQ , room correction and sub xover and volume should be digital in a modern preamp with built in DAC , you just add an ADC for the analog sources you still have left ? It should simply have an DSP ?
Sub integration the analog ways seems bit archaic since you need to complement the sub’s with some kind of room eq anyway for successful integration, just having xover is not enough ?
subwoofer is mean active?I have go at this, my list to santa :
Can we please have
* Room EQ (Dirac or similar)
* Loudness contour , variable possibly to tune against level ( like RME does it ).
* Subwoofer outputs , with crossover
* One more balanced analog input
* USB input
* ARC or EARC
* Tone controls or EQ for a quick fix adjusting for taste regarding recordings ( the room and speaker EQ are set and forget )
* Balance control
* Mono button
* Mute button
* Tape loop
(* Optionally a phono stage )
(* Optionally a built in streamer )
Limit the subwoofer output frequency to within 60Hz or there is a knob to adjust the frequency between 20Hz to 20kHz. which you needServe what everyone is looking for and nobody wants to dare. Sub output with high pass filter for the speaker outputs, possibly with adjustable frequency. we all want to manage the subwoofer by splitting the frequencies, but nobody seems to care
Would you prefer the subwoofer output to be active or passive?My 2 cents - add a SUB OUT that is controlled by the volume knob (in every product possible, not just this one). And then, consider removing coaxial and optical and add USB and Bluetooth instead. If you will, you can do a poll (or a kind of research of your own) regarding having optical + coaxial vs USB + Bluetooth; I'll be curious to see the results.
There is double conversion only for analog inputs? Look at the OP the suggested design from Fosi comes with built in DAC in the preamp . So built in DAC for digital sources this would be as straight as it can get , and thus all signal manipulation thereafter should be done in digital domain , for bets performance .What's the point of been on a device with limited (always will be) available PEQ ,double convertion,etc?
All of this can be done then a thousand times better on the PC and all it need is a couple extra outputs (different channels) to route the low's.
The useful would be to be completely standalone and include every source where it can mix and match everything,bal to unbal,unbal to bal,etc.
There's already miniDSP for the above,a preamp as a center of a system must be as versatible,stable and standalone as possible as the immediate link to power amps where security is the number one factor.
Agree on most but one (for me):No digital VC will ever be before my power amps,that's an absolute no-go to me.There is double conversion only for analog inputs? Look at the OP the suggested design from Fosi comes with built in DAC in the preamp . So built in DAC for digital sources this would be as straight as it can get , and thus all signal manipulation thereafter should be done in digital domain , for bets performance .
An ADC would be completely transparent to your analog sources such as a phono stage or tuner or whatnot .
Oh more digital inputs are needed .
A mini DSP can also be a digital preamp , that’s a device I’m contemplating to buy actually .
And yes completely stand alone no PC involved for peq or room eq or crossover .
Doing everything in the digital domain makes sense to me , volume control is for example better done digital, you get perfect channel balance all the time .
Tone controls are better done digitaly or any EQ or crossover .
Traditional analog tone controls did come with some performance penalties, with a digital implementation you can have your cake and eat it at the same time imo and an ADC is a small cost for making room EQ aviable to analog sources to or subwoofer integration for best bass management
Using an external DAC to a preamp with in inbuilt DAC should be pointless anyway, the included DAC should be good enough otherwise it’s not good .
You could go in the other direction and make a completely analog preamp instead and remove the onboard DAC that’s another suggestion for Fosi remove the DAC if the product does not include a complete digital solution it’s rather half done this way .
Imo a traditional analog approach breaks down as soon as you have a subwoofer to integrate .
I know , almost filled my underpants on some occasionsAgree on most but one (for me):No digital VC will ever be before my power amps,that's an absolute no-go to me.
Any penalty taken by an analog VC (as long as is inaubible and keeps a rock solid balance,no cheap but absolutely doable) is a fair trade to me for peace of mind,I 've been around long enough to know that a digital VC without draconian protection measures is an accident waiting to happen.
Two Scanspeak 26W/8861T00,I still remember the modelkids,
It isn't really - maybe one or two additional op amp chips needed:Balanced interconnect systems are great. All balance internal circuits are an expensive engineering challenge.
Denafrips Athena is like this and I think is a must.It looks good to me.
I would second the requirement for fully balanced through from input to output, and from any dac output immediately to balanced across the circuit board. (See Bruno's link I posted above)